Recently in Creativity Category

At the master class last Saturday, I saw many bright, creative people.  Jeremy Ian Thomas, the creative director at RawWorks, was among them.  He wrote, along with Robert Lehman, and shot this short, micro budget film ($3.00) that has a compelling message and is really well executed.

Vimeo Link and additional info at the RAWworks blog.

Neil Smith, at hdiRAWworks, arranged for Philip Bloom to conduct a Canon HD-DSLR masterclass yesterday here in LA. This was the first time I've ever attended such a thing, and I rather enjoyed it and learned a lot too. The little tidbits you pick up are also interesting: like why the Canon 5Dmkii will only shoot video for 12 minutes. I always thought it was just a storage capacity issue. No. (We live in such a weird world.)

Philip showed several of his shorts, which, of course, are amazing. I've embedded a few of them here at tt.us from time to time. While they look great on the computer screen, they were stunning on the big screen with the HD projector.

He spoke of many things related to his craft, but I suppose I learned the most from his talk about setup, actually using the DSLR for video. I've never bothered with custom camera settings before but have already imported the superflat settings he recommended and am eager to try the workflow: shooting with the increased dynamic range, though visually initially less "interesting," and then grading the footage in post. It makes sense as I do the equivalent process with still photography all the time. We just can't get raw data out of the 5D. Philip says: "Yet..." (See Luka Crnkovic-Dodig's post: How to increase the Canon 7D/5D dynamic range, which includes this link to the superflat settings file, among others.)

In my own casual exploration through this space, I've ended up with a lot of the same software and equipment, and now have a better understanding of implementation and process for video and timelapse using my 5Dmkii. It's now time to play, play, play!  I'm also eager to explore timelapse.

Aside from being brilliant at what he does, Philip is very personable and has a great sense of humor. He also comes across as completely genuine and open about what he recommends and why. If you ever have the opportunity to attend one of his masterclasses, jump at it! I'm glad I stepped outside of my comfort zone.

Related articles

• Canon Rebel T2i DSLR: 18MP and Legit 1080p Video for $899 [Digital Cameras] (gizmodo.com)


• Canon EOS 7D digital SLR (go.theregister.com)


• Canon's EOS 1D Mark V DSLR defying death, launching tomorrow? (engadget.com)


• The First Clips Shot on the Canon T2i Look As Good as the 7D [Photography] (gizmodo.com)


• Gorgeous (timtyson.us)

Jacob Bijani, Tumblr’s Creative Director, said “I always have to stop and think when setting a border radius in CSS, so I built a tool for it.” And so, Border-Radius.com was born. Easy, intuitive, interactive, practical, and gorgeously designed.

Beautiful!  But I would fall to my death!

Source:  FFFFound

Very clever time-lapse shot in Tokyo. To see the video in full HD, check out this link. Or you can click below to watch a smaller version from YouTube. To learn more about how the video was shot, go to the Laughing Squid.

I've made myself stop wearing a watch.  My iPhone has a clock on it that auto syncs to the network.  And, as I travel so much, that comes in handy.  My iPhone is always showing the timezone in which I currently am located, unlike my watch which requires a manual change.  I've gotten comfy going without the watch.

But this watch, with tiny lasers to indicate the hour and minute hand, would be enough to make me start wearing one again!

As I've said before, I just can't get enough of Philip Bloom's work. He even shares the link to the original HD file he shot (750MB) so you can compare that to the final edit—which, of course, is gorgeous.

I took the Canon out on the streets in the evening to test out it’s low light ability and to show this footage to the attendees on each day. I shot entirely handheld using just the Zacuto Z-finder optical viewfinder which gave me much needed stability and the ability to easily focus. I didn’t take the full gunstock rig out as I wanted to be really inconspicuous. I looked like I was just taking photos.

Using just one Zeiss 50mm f1.4 Nikon lens with a Canon Eos to Nikon adaptor for £20 off of ebay I managed to get some lovely shots. As 5dmk2 users out will testify shooting with this camera is hard due to the lack of manual controls, but having the nikon lens helped and I did the usual tricks to lock down the ISO. Generally keeping it no higher than 1250, occasionally 1600 but never higher as the noise levels would be unacceptable.

This was all shot 30p. Everything was converted to XDCAM EX 30p in Mpeg Streamclip to make editing easy. The first three shots use FCP smoothcam to give a slightly surreal look to them the rest is all handheld raw. As I said no grading. So I did the entire edit in 30p, exported as a complete movie, brought it into compressor. Converted to ProRes 422 25p at best settings and it looked great. Not just that but the music stayed the same speed and pitch. So easy!"

[Source: “Sofia’s People” Low light short on Canon 5d mk2 in 25p | Philip Bloom.]

Source: Cool Hunting

I follow @PhilipBloom on Twitter. He does such amazing work. He has been in Dubai for the past several days shooting this video, Sky. This short timelapse beautifully captures the radiance of the city. And the music, Xibalba by Clint Mansell, is perfect for it.

I appreciate Philip's willingness to share how he does this with HD-DSLRs. It's so helpful to those of us who love to dabble. You can read about the process at his blog, here.

Be sure to watch this in full screen mode. It's beautiful.

He also has a uStream account and broadcast live from his iPhone today. I haven't tried that yet, but it's on my list!

I love stumbling upon a cool technology trick.

Working out compression settings for video distribution is part art, part science, and a whole lot of witchcraft. Compression is just often difficult and can be very frustrating.

Well, tonight I learned that if you take a movie file that has already been compressed (select one, of course, that looks really good because it was well compressed) and drop it into the "Custom" folder under the "Settings" tab in Compressor 3.5 (part of Final Cut Pro Studio), Compressor will think about that file for a second (depending on the speed of your machine) and then create a custom preset of the compression settings used to create that finished project! And the description tag becomes the name of the movie project you dropped into Compressor.

Sweet!

Compressor reads the metadata from the file and figures out how the file was compressed and then returns those settings as a preset you can use for your own project compression. Now, even with good compression settings, if you have poor quality source video, you will get poor results. But the problem is often the opposite way around: you have a great project and can't get the compression output to serve a good finished product.

And here's another little tidbit: if you take a Compressor Droplet (a little preset "stand alone application"), right click on it, select "show package contents," open the "Settings" folder and drop the .setting file onto the "Custom" folder under the "Settings" tab in Compressor 3.5, Compressor will again create a custom preset of the compression settings used in the droplet.

Why would you ever want to do the later? You can't get to the setting details of a droplet any other way. So if you want to tweak them but don't have the original settings saved as a preset in Compressor, this lets you get to those settings as well as save the settings as a preset in Compressor if you choose. It's just one of those things you will never need until you do--and then you will be pulling your hair out trying to figure out how to do this. :o)

Thanks to Brian Gary and the helpful folks at rippletraining, just a few miles from my home, for these two helpful tips.

I've actually been thinking more and more about leaving the US. I mean: for good. I find myself so disillusioned with what is happening in my native land.

My country forces education reform that is destroying creativity, problem solving, deep thinking, and analysis of knowledge to inform carefully considered long term solution-making for the immediacy of factionalized curriculum memorization. My country will not move beyond prejudice and discrimination. My country is squandering our national (as well as international) resources. My country is flinging privacy and personal freedom as fast as it escalates fear. My country cares more about greed, money, and possessing things than it does about people and their basic wellbeing. My country is removing the separation of church and state and forcing people to live by tenets of religion in which they may not personally believe. My country allows business, built on greed and outsourcing, to become so large they can not fail and must receive tax payer's money to keep the executes rolling in fat bonuses with shameless abandon. My nation's government is bought and sold by transglobal corporations and makes divisiveness its core ethic.

I can do little of nothing to stop or change any of this.

I wonder if this is a natural part of getting older--seeing the world through more jaded eyes. But I see other nations, not without their faults to be sure, at least maintaining some more moderate and productive sense of balance. I just think the US government is fundamentally broken and inept.

I shared last night at dinner that I actually don't think the US will be able to move to a better place within my lifetime. This saddens me greatly.

I've supported Lawrence Lessig's work for some time. I've had his "Change Congress" link on my site for some time. In this video he sums up things, and, unlike my dismal state of disillusion, offers a ray of hope. He doesn't frame the problem as conservative versus liberal or Republican versus Democrat. He is insightful and brilliant.

Questions have their own punctuation mark. Exclamations have their own punctuation mark. And now, for only $1.99, every sarcastic statement you type can have its own punctuation mark as well. Never again leave your sarcasm unpunctuated! Introducing the Sarcmark!

Building projection can be fun and entertaining, but the people at NuFormer Digital Media, a Netherlands company, are taking this to a whole new level with amazing 3D building projections. Check it out.

The walls (facade or sides) of any building can be used. The projection is a digital re-creation of the architecture of a building. Architectural features of buildings are often used to fantastic effect. Due to the impressive size of the projection a spectacular visual experience is guaranteed. There are no size limits whatsoever."

[Source: Projections on Buildings - Impressive.]

Yesterday afternoon I abandoned routine and went to see Avatar. This was the first time I have ever seen a 3D IMAX movie.

I had heard good things about Avatar in 3D IMAX but really really wasn't expecting much. After all, I've seen a 3D movie before, years ago. I just wasn't all that impressed with it. In fact, it was so lackluster, I don't even recall what the movie was. I'd also been to (seen?) Terminator, a 3D experience at Disney's EPCOT, which, while great fun, was obviously less than a deep 3D immersive experience.

Avatar is in a whole new class of immersive 3D experiences. I had adjusted to the 3D glasses within 15 - 20 seconds of watching the first 3D preview and quickly got past the fact that I was wearing them.

Within a few minutes, I was "into" the movie. I mean, I literally lost the fact I was watching this movie on a 2D flat screen. The sense of real physical depth is convincing.

I actually caught myself, at one point fairly early in the movie, physically moving my body/head to see around an object in the movie so I could better see what was behind it! Such a thing is, of course, impossible. I was still watching a 3D image projected on a flat 2D screen. But my mind, my sense of perception, was so realistically convinced by the 3D technology that I perceived an actual 3D space. Intuitively I "knew" that I should be able to see behind an object if I just moved.

Amazing!

I fear that I am now "of an age" that doesn't thrill so easily from a movie-going experience. This was different. The artistic direction, the imaginative, creative visual design, the seamless and invisible integration of CGI were all compellingly presented in a truly artistic and visually stunning encounter.

Seeing Avatar in 3D IMAX is a must. This movie, in 3D IMAX, has forever changed what the movies are destined to become as an art form.

Another 3D movie was advertised in the previews that I will have to go see: NASA's 3D IMAX about repairing the Hubble Telescope. The trailer said NASA filmed the actual repair with a 3D IMAX camera. The clarity, detail, and 3D reality of the trailer placed me right there loosely tethered in outer space. I really felt as though I could reach out in front of me and touch the image. It seemed that real.

What will be next? When will our capacity to capture and display massive amounts of visual information become so great that we will be able to literally walk around in a movie projection, seeing it from all sides? (I would hate to be the camera director for that kind of project!) While interacting physically with the image, like on the Holodeck in StarTrek, currently seems impossible, or maybe not, perhaps a more complete sense of 3D projection is not.

I wasn't pleased with the video play button I created and used as an overlay on videos that would open in the shadowbox. My mother asked me why I had a weird finger on some of my pictures. I had no idea what she was talking about. Then, it dawned on me... So, I made a new one.

The new one takes inspiration from the (universal?) YouTube play button, is more "sculpted," has "instructions" on it, and hopefully draws a bit more attention to itself and its function without being too "in your face."

I like new one so much better and hope you do too!

BTW: clicking on the above images does nothing. :o)

I wonder why I so like CGI and composited video? Maybe because it asks one of those fundamental questions, "Is it real?"

This is a cool example of compositing using green screen.

Welcome to the new world of digital filmmaking. Give this one a minute to get going.

Thanks Nats and Gary for sending this one along. Have a great link to share with us? (I know you do!) Write us at mail at openculture dot com."

[Source: Is Anything Real? | Open Culture.]

So the iPhone controlled AR.Drone I blogged about earlier (last week) is real. They were showing it off at the CES last week. Here is a video with Robert Scoble talking about it. He say's he will buy one if it comes in under $500. (Jeeze, I guess I would too.)

Translated from their French Fubiz site...

One bedroom original egg-shaped, designed by the Belgian company DMVA. Elle inclue une salle de bains, un lit et plusieurs espaces de stockage. It includes a bathroom, a bed and more storage space. Une façade s'ouvre automatiquement pour servir de porte. A facade opens automatically to a door. L'ensemble est mobile et peut servir de bureau ou de chambre d'ami. The unit is mobile and can be used as office or guest room."

[Source: Google Translate.]

Clicking on the image below will open a shadowbox with several views of the interior of their one bedroom design. The inside is amazingly spacious, interesting and sleek.

Several of these I hadn't heard of before reading this post: shovel-ready? bromance? chillaxin? (I watch too little TV to be literate I guess.) But I must confess, I too frequently grow weary of buzz. Who, after all, are the buzz makers?

At first, the word or phrase is an interesting twist of language that expresses a sentiment meaningful in the moment. But, like most pop songs, it's only interesting the first 50,000 times you hear it and quickly descends into a noisy backdrop you simply try to ignore.

With the mass consumption of mass culture through mass communication, the life cycle of chichi, buzz, au courant, trendy, and chic is as short as that of a mosquito and equally as annoying while flitting about hunting for a victim. The article includes a few quotations for each word from people who nominated the word for inclusion on the list. Some are witty.

• Shovel-Ready
• Transparent/Transparency
• Czar
• Tweet
• App
• Sexting
• Friend As A Verb
• Teachable Moment
• In These Economic Times….
• Stimulus
• Toxic Assets
• Too Big To Fail
• Bromance
• Chillaxin'
• Obama-prefix or roots?

[List source: Lake Superior State University :: Banished Words List :: Banished Words List.]

The answer is: not really. Amazing!

I especially like how he shows us how much compositing goes into each CGI. And the natural movement of the leaves, the water, the clouds... Beautifully done. The photographer even looks real.

I guess I'm still a kid at heart! I'm not sure the Parrot AR.Drone is for real if for no other reason: the WiFi signal strength is a huge limitation. The signal just doesn't go as far as this video gives the impression it goes. And WiFi signals are not that portable. You can't just create a network in an open, empty field. And forget ever using AT&T's "fastest" and smallest 3G network! Even if AT&T opened access for this type of data transfer, their network would choke before this thing ever got off the ground.

But the idea is way cool.

With Paraglider over Campo croce near Bassano del Grappa soaring the thermals on the southern slopes of Mte Grappa Canon 50D with Sigma 4,5 mm Fisheye, free-hand, PTGUI, Photoshop CS3, Pano2VR"

[Source: 'Flugpano Papierfassung' on 360cities.net.]

I just have one question: How on earth did Martin shoot this!?

Totally cool: not just the simple mechanics of the Catena* Wall Clock, but the color of the housing, wall, and numbers. Desgined by Andreas Dober for Anthologie Quartett of Germany, I'd love one of these, but it apparently costs $2,338.00 from unica home. Other unique clocks can be found at this link.

[Source: unica home.]

*catena is apparently the Latin word for "chain," and the clock is made from copper numbers placed on a bicycle chain.

We were never allowed to play with our food... Cute holiday gift for children.

Source: Shop Neatorama

Go ahead, check out the new footer at the bottom of my blog. I've completely redone it. What do you think?

Special thanks to the Creative Pony for letting novice users like myself use some cool code! She calls it Sliding Tabs. It is similar to cover view in iTunes that many readers here are probably familiar with.

Tim likes!

This is a clever idea that would have been cool 15 years ago when I had a Palm PDA. In fact, I wished back in the day that someone made one. Instead, I had to buy one of those tiny fold up keyboards like the one you see at the bottom of this post. I'm not too sure a laser keyboard will be a hit today with glowing touchscreen keyboards becoming so prevalent.

The Virtual Laser Keyboard (VKB) is a revolutionary accessory (The only keyboard that operates in total darkness - see the picture below) for Blackberry, Smartphone, PDA, MAC & Tablet PC. The VKB comes with an elegant leather jacket, making it the perfect business / Christmas gift (and just what you want to take out of your inner suit pocket in front of your amazed business colleagues...:-)

In the size of a Zipo lighter and in an outer spaced 'enterprise' style, it uses a laser beam to generate a full-size perfectly OPERATING laser keyboard that smoothly connects to MAC's, Smart Phones, the new Blackberry (8100,8300,8800),Nokia N95 (Symbian Series 60 3rd Edition) and Any kind of PC and Most of the handheld devices (PDA's, tablet PC's)."

(Via I-Tech's Virtual Keyboard - A laser projected full-sized virtual QWERTY keyboard.)

Photo credit: Katsushi

Wouldn't he have walked into a tree when he was sending it to and from Twitter? But for just a buck, why did half the people who rated it go off the deep end?! Jeeze, people. Calm down already!

We are entering a new age of cool! Apple's iPhone is a game changer!

The bike wheel contains all you need so that no sensors or additional electronics need to be added to the frame and an existing bike can be retrofitted with the blink of an eye. ...

By using a series of sensors and a Bluetooth connection to the user's iPhone, which can be mounted on the handlebars, the wheel can monitor the bicycle's speed, direction and distance traveled, as well as collect data on air pollution and even the proximity of the rider's friends. ...

The Copenhagen Wheel is part of a more general trend: that of inserting intelligence in our everyday objects and of creating a smart support infrastructure around ourselves for everyday life... The Wheel has a smart lock: if somebody tries to steal it, it goes into a mode where the brake regenerates the maximum amount of power, and sends you a text message. So in the worst case scenario the thief will have charged your batteries before you get back your bike."

(Via MIT’s big wheel in Copenhagen.)

If you want to actually do this, and interact with the 3D augmented reality as you see here, just check out this link. You will need to print out the page in step one. Go to the web address. And then hold the printout in front of your web camera.

It's actually rather amazing!